Hello Vintage Jaeger-LeCoultre Lovers,
I would like start with dedicating this part to my dear friend Rafal for making this possible!
Rafal, I am deeply grateful!
Lately there have been a lot of posts about the TT DSA here.
IMO, the strongest watch from JLC this year together with the Reverso TT 1931.
So naturally I have to have a part in this series about the original Deep Sea Alarm!
As you might know the original DSA is quite a rare bird.
Less then 1000 ever made in a couple of years time (less then 1/5 was the JLC version).
Launched in 1959 as “the worlds first automatic diving alarm watch”!
Ref E 857, calibre 815 bumper automatic.
What makes writing this part difficult is that not many documents on the DSA are known (at least to me).
Maybe JLC is hiding some documents; maybe some other collectors have some they don’t share with us..?
I don’t know…
To my knowledge there are only two original documents showing the Deep Sea Alarm.
If you know others, please – please enlighten me, I would be forever grateful!
Let’s start with the Jaeger-LeCoultre document:
Jaeger-LeCoultre, French catalogue, 1960.
Automatic, alarm, waterproof.
Proven to a depth of 200 meters.
Flexible extensible steel bracelet.
Jaeger-LeCoultre, French catalogue, 1960.
The water resistance I will not test...
But the flexible extensible steel bracelet I had to try!
Well I am not very found of this kind of bracelets, I prefer the vintage Tropical…
One interesting detail is that the DSA don’t have a French reference as most of the other watches in the list.
It’s using the European ref E 857.
Jaeger-LeCoultre, French catalogue, 1960.
I wonder how much 590 NF would be in EUR today..?
OK, let’s have a look at the LeCoultre document.
Now it starts to get complicated…
LeCoultre, North American catalogue, 1959-1960.
Nor on the cover or the front page of the catalogue says anything about LeCoultre watches…
LeCoultre, North American catalogue, 1959-1960.
Instead it says: Logines-Wittnauer!
Earlier in this series we have experienced that there was some sort of collaboration between LeCoultre and Vacheron & Constantin but also together with Logines-Wittnauer.
In this ad from 1948 all four brands are mentioned.
LeCoultre, North American Ad, 1948.
While in this one from 1955 no mentioning of Vacheron & Constantin.
LeCoultre, North American Ad, 1955.
Does anyone know what year LeCoultre and Vacheron & Constantin parted ways in North America?
Not even in the introduction of the catalogue there is any mentioning of LeCoultre.
LeCoultre, North American catalogue, 1959-1960.
Finally in the index there are some LeCoultre watches listed!
LeCoultre, North American catalogue, 1959-1960.
But only two of them.
And luckily one of them is the Deep Sea Alarm!
Is Logines-Wittnauer pushing for their own watches?
So, why did they even include the DSA in that case?
On the page before the DSA, Longines presents their own competitor in this class:
The Longines Skin Diver T 910 – the predecessor of the Longine Diver (to become model for the Legend Diver).
LeCoultre, North American catalogue, 1959-1960.
Now the really strange things start…
Note the name: Deep Sea Automatic Alarm.
LeCoultre, North American catalogue, 1959-1960.
“Visual warning is shown by arrow on manually rotated outer bezel.” ?!
Was the outer bezel supposed to be rotating?
Well, it would have made sense on a diving watch.
But, no the bezel IS NOT rotating!
“…tested warterproof to 500 feet.”
1 feet is approximately 0,3048 meters.
That will give us 500 x 0,3048=152,4 meters.
Almost 25% less then the Jaeger-LeCoultre version (200m)!
To my knowledge there are no differences in the construction of the two versions.
They share the same case, crystal (plexi), crowns…
Only difference is the dial (that I know of).
200m are approximately 656 feet, why didn’t they put that in the catalogue or at least 600 feet?
Was the watch not water resistant to more then 500 feet and they corrected the info in the Logines-Wittnauer catalogue?
Or was it just an error in translation between meter and feet..?
Who knows…
Did you notice that both the Longines Skin Diver and the Deep Sea Alarm are shown on the same bracelet?
LeCoultre, North American catalogue, 1959-1960.
Same era, similar watch, similar price…
135 USD sounds good to me – two please!
Well, the Deep Sea Alarm has always been and will always be a mythical lady!
To me She is the root of all good and great when it comes to JLC diving sports watches!
Do we really want to know all the details about the Deep Sea Alarm or are we happy that some things still waits for us to be found deep down in the dark sea..?
Thank you for reading this Part 9 of this Vintage Ads Series.
Hope you enjoyed!
Best
Blomman
Vintage Ads: The Series – Intro!
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #1 Futurematic
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #2 Memovox Pocket Alarms
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #3 Electronic
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #4 The Planet-Sphere
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #5 Memovox Parking
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #6 Advertising as art
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #7 Géomatic
Vintage Ads: The Series – Part #8 Atmos